The full screenplay for one of this year’s biggest movies, Joker, has arrived online. The film, which has now grossed over $1 billion, arrived in cinemas back in October of this year with Joaquin Phoenix in the title role.
The movie is now gaining some pretty big awards buzz, particularly for Phoenix, but expect nods for the screenplay by Todd Phillips and Scott Silver too. I really liked the film when I caught up with it shortly after release.
The screenplay’s arrival online was released through this post over on Deadline and it’s obviously a very interesting read. It is clear from the outset that this one is very much not part of Warner Brothers and DC’s extended universe.
“This story takes place in its own universe. It has no connection to any of the DC films that have come before it,” the introduction to the full script reads.
Forever alone in a crowd, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) longs for any light to shine on him. Trying his hand as a stand-up comic, he finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty and, ultimately, betrayal, Arthur makes one bad decision after another that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events.
Check out the screenplay through Deadline at the end of the link above. Joker will be released on the home formats from February.
